I opened my eyes and observed my surroundings; once again, I am in a hospital room. I evaluated the condition of my body and I am perfectly fine, my mana has recovered, and I don't feel any problems with my mana circuits.
After seeing that I was fine, I thought about going out to look for information since I am alone in this room and I have to know how uncle Jung and aunt Seonmi are doing. The last thing I remember is that someone forced me to let go of them and I could no longer stay conscious to know what happened after.
It seems I don't necessarily have to get out from here to get some attention as next to my bed there is a small switch, usually used to call the attention of the nurse in charge of the patient. I pressed it and waited. It took no more than 2 minutes for a nurse to arrive.
"Hello little buddy, how do you feel? Does anything hurt?" said the nurse.
"I'm fine sir, nothing hurts. But can you tell me how my uncle and auntie are? We were in the car when another hit us," I lied to get answers as quickly as possible.
I observed him but unfortunately, it seems he doesn't know anything, as he didn't show much reaction.
"Sorry little buddy, I was only assigned to take care of you until you woke up, but give me a moment I will report to my superior that you woke up and I will find out about your family, just wait a few minutes, be a good boy and don't go anywhere, okay?" he said before leaving the room.
Given the situation, it is better not to leave, with my appearance of a 12-year-old boy no one will take me seriously and I will cause problems that will take longer to solve than the time it will take for someone to come and give me answers.
I waited several minutes and the door opened again, it was my parents and Seonhwa who entered. They look quite distressed, and Seonhwa who is wearing her school uniform looks like she has been crying for a while. Her nose and eyelids are red and her eyes super irritated. She ran out to hug me.
"Oppa *sniff*, you're awake! *sniff sniff*," said Seonhwa while crying.
From all the signs they showed, I could only think of the worst. Did I really not save them? I clenched my fists and felt as if my heart was racing, but I forced myself to calm down and returned Seonhwa's hug and looked at my parents.
"How are they, uncle and auntie?" I inquired, hoping someone would tell me. Seonhwa simply hugged me tighter when she heard my question and my fear that the worst had happened increased.
"Seonhwa dear, let us go for some coffee and snacks, you said you would not eat anything until Jihu woke up and he's already awake now. Come on, you have to eat something or you won't grow well and you won't look pretty and another girl will take Jihu away," said mom trying to take Seonhwa out of the room.
It seems she wants to give dad and I some space, most likely to talk about something they don't want Seonhwa to hear.
Normally when mom teases Seonhwa using me to tease her, she usually reacts by getting red and nervous. It's funny how cute she looks embarrassed trying to hide her feelings. But this time she didn't react and just hugged me tighter, she's really very affected by the situation.
"Seonhwa, can you accompany mom and bring me something to eat, please? I'm very hungry," I said softly while stroking her hair.
" *Sniff* yes Oppa, give me a moment, I'll bring you food *sniff* so you can recover soon," she said while holding back sobs. Then she left with mom.
Dad waited a minute before starting to talk.
"How do you feel champ? Does anything hurt? Although the doctors told us you are fine, I will feel more relieved to hear it from you," said dad with a concerned tone.
"I'm fine dad, but the uncle Jung and aunt Seonmi, how are they? I saw it, they were badly injured after the crash, please answer me, be honest," I said trying to keep my voice as calm as possible.
"Okay, but promise me you won't tell Seonhwa. If I tell you, it is because I trust your maturity and I know you won't do anything foolish, okay?" said dad quite seriously.
"I promise, I'm the last person who wants to cause her harm and seeing how affected she is, I can tell that if the news is not good she will be heartbroken," I replied.
He nodded to my answer and took a deep breath, I held my breath and mentally prepared for the news.
"Both of them, at this moment, are in operating rooms. The doctors are doing everything possible to save them, but the prognosis is not good. The best is for your aunt Seonmi, she was the one who suffered the least in the accident, she was wearing the seatbelt and was saved from a strong impact. But unfortunately, a tool misplaced on the dashboard along with the force of the crash caused it to injure your aunt and the doctor who was going to operate on her told us that even if she saves her life, she would be paralyzed from the waist down," said dad with sadness and regret.
Then he hesitated for a few seconds, but finally spoke again.
"Jung, your uncle Jung is in the worst situation, his prognosis is not good at all. Ah... he... his life is hanging by a thread, the doctor said it was already a miracle that he held on until the ambulances arrived and that his chances of saving him are less than 10% and even if they save him they cannot estimate the sequelae of the damage to his brain. He did not have his seatbelt on and suffered the full force of the crash," said dad with almost a broken voice. It is noticeable that he is as affected as mom and Seonhwa.
"Remember your promise, son," he told me seriously.
"Yes, dad," was all I could say before I got lost in my thoughts.
This is a damn disaster, my intervention barely prevented them from dying, but aunt and uncle are still at risk of losing their lives and even if they are saved they will not have a normal life at all. And what's worse, the origin of the damn problem has not been solved.
Those wretches were not robbing us, they wanted to kill them because someone ordered them to and that means someone wants them dead and they will not stop until they achieve it.
I have to go after the gang called "nightmare" to find out who they are and why they want the uncles dead and cut the problem at the root.
"How long have I been asleep?" I asked dad.
"Almost 3 hours. From what they told us, your aunt's surgery is the one that will take the least time. We are waiting for news from her since the doctors told us that if there are no complications it would take between 3 to 4 hours to finish. As for your uncle, they told us it would be longer and they could not give us a specific time, but they also told us that any lack of news in the short term is the best news we can have," said dad sadly.
That means my uncle could die in the operating room at any moment. This is so frustrating.
Dad and I were silent for several minutes until mom and Seonhwa returned.
"Oppa, here is your coffee and some bread, we couldn't find anything better, there wasn't much in the cafeteria," said Seonhwa as she handed me a cup of coffee and some bread.
But I saw that she didn't bring anything for herself, I gave my mom an interrogative look and she simply shook her head, that means Seonhwa didn't want to eat or buy anything to eat.
"Thank you, Seonhwa, but I already feel better and I've lost my appetite; I won't be able to eat it all, help me finish it so we don't waste food," I said kindly.
Normally, she would be happy to share food with me. Now though, I didn't see her animated at all and once again I felt guilty for my powerlessness to save the her parents.
"No Oppa, I already ate, you have to eat everything to recover quickly," she lied, and it is clear she's very bad at lying, she lowered her head and avoided my gaze while shrinking her body after she said that.
I took a piece of bread and dipped it in the coffee, blew on it to make sure it wasn't hot, and caught Seonhwa's attention, and while she was off guard, I fed her.
"Come on, I'll feed you, you have to eat or I'll be sad," I said as I blew on the next piece of bread, she became somewhat shy and finally, it seems I managed to distract her a little from all these problems. It was difficult, but I managed to make her eat all the bread with coffee.
After the food was finished though, it was as if she remembered everything again and she became sad once more, hugged me, and started to cry.
"Oppa... mom, dad *sniff* they... *sniff* they..." she said between sobs.
"They will be fine, I promise. They are strong. Uncle Jung is like a lion and aunt Seonmi like an Amazon, so don't be sad because they will want to see you with a big smile when they recover," I said while I can only hope that my voice didn't sound as broken for saying something that not even I can believe, especially about her parents.